You are here

Desert Restoration Corps

For the last decade, members of SCA’s Desert Restoration Corps have monitored, preserved, and repaired fragile habitat in the Mojave and Colorado Deserts of Southern California.

The DRC is one of SCA’s most challenging programs. Members should be prepared to live and work as a small, tightly knit community in extremely remote locations. Environmental conditions can be harsh, and the projects themselves are physically and mentally challenging. Those able to meet these challenges, however, can look forward to an unforgettable conservation adventure that will test their very limits.

During the 10-month DRC season, members will restore, protect, and monitor thousands of acres of desert wilderness and will complete a number of other conservation projects. The Peer Leadership model will also provide leadership experience for all members.

The ﬁrst eight months of the DRC are based out of Ridgecrest, CA. Each team will live and work out of remote tent camps for 10-day periods while undertaking projects, allowing members to fully experience the lands being served. While the majority of the season is devoted to mitigating the impacts of Oﬀ-Highway Vehicle (OHV) recreation in the desert surrounding Ridgecrest, Teams will take on additional projects elsewhere in California as the heat of the desert summer encroaches during the ﬁnal two months of the work season. Projects typically include habitat restoration, fence/barrier construction, public outreach, trail work/assessment, invasive species management, and resource (i.e. water, wildlife) monitoring.

Members of the Desert Restoration Corps receive or have the option to receive the following trainings or certiﬁcations:

CPR Certiﬁcation

Wilderness First Responder Certiﬁcation

Leave No Trace (LNT) Trainer Course

S212 Chainsaw Certiﬁcation

Advanced Oﬀ Highway Vehicle training

Peer Leadership

Restoration Philosophy and Practice

Trail Skills

Applicants must be between 18-25 years of age and must pass a background check.

The Desert Restoration Corps (DRC) is a partnership between the Student Conservation Association (SCA), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and California Oﬀ-Highway Vehicle Commission (CA-OHV).

The human life forms arrived in late February and set up makeshift shelters in the wilderness of Owen’s Peak. Their fragile carbon-based bodies required supplementary carbon-based layers at night to maintain a functioning core temperature. As soon as the earth rotated enough for solar radiation to arrive at our location again, the humans abandoned their shelters and utilized a combustion vehicle to spare their caloric reserves for use at their destination

On the first day of All-Corps, the Wilderness Crew learned how to make an H-brace, in preparation for building the 1.2 mile long fence to protect the Robber’s Roost bird of prey nesting area from trespass that might disturb the nesting season. In the afternoon, Jawbone/Rands, Wilderness, and WildCorps explored Sage Canyon, the Pacific Crest Trail, and the Burro Schmidt Tunnel. The Burro Schmidt Tunnel is a handmade tunnel (which was the life’s work of one William “Burro” H.

Hitch 3 led the Wildcorps crew to our southernmost destinations yet—El Centro and Yuma, where we hiked throughout the Indian Pass and Picacho Peak Wilderness Areas as well as North Algodones Dunes. This was the first hitch in which we wouldn’t be swinging any tools but our feet. Our job seemed simple: hike a couple miles or more each day into a specific patch of desert to find “Guzzlers,” or manmade water tanks that collect yearly rainfall to provide drinking water for local fauna.